Information science and its core concepts: Levels of disagreement

TY - CHAP

T1 - Information science and its core concepts

T2 - Levels of disagreement

AU - Hjørland, Birger

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - One often encounters disagreements in information science (IS) (or library and information science, LIS), even disagreements about what might seem rather trivial questions. Such disagreements range from the designation of the field to questions such as whether IS is an academic discipline or not, what its aim is, what its core concepts are, what kinds of problems we try to solve, and what kinds of theories, metatheories, and related disciplines are the most important ones for us. Some people tend to regard IS as a branch of computer science or the cognitive sciences, while others tend to consider it as part of cultural studies or of science studies, and the different views are often reflected in the various names given to the field. These kinds of disagreement and their mutual dependencies are the focus in this chapter, with an emphasis on the different labels given for the field. “Poor terminological hygiene” may account for some of the disagreements, but basically the problem is seen as a lack of sufficient strong centripetal tendencies keeping the field together.

AB - One often encounters disagreements in information science (IS) (or library and information science, LIS), even disagreements about what might seem rather trivial questions. Such disagreements range from the designation of the field to questions such as whether IS is an academic discipline or not, what its aim is, what its core concepts are, what kinds of problems we try to solve, and what kinds of theories, metatheories, and related disciplines are the most important ones for us. Some people tend to regard IS as a branch of computer science or the cognitive sciences, while others tend to consider it as part of cultural studies or of science studies, and the different views are often reflected in the various names given to the field. These kinds of disagreement and their mutual dependencies are the focus in this chapter, with an emphasis on the different labels given for the field. “Poor terminological hygiene” may account for some of the disagreements, but basically the problem is seen as a lack of sufficient strong centripetal tendencies keeping the field together.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - Epistemology

KW - Philosophy of Science

KW - Philosophy of Social Science

U2 - 10.1007/978-94-007-6973-1_9

DO - 10.1007/978-94-007-6973-1_9

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 978-94-007-6972-4

T3 - Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science

SP - 205

EP - 235

BT - Fundamental notions of information communication and knowledge

A2 - lbekwe-SanJuan, Fidelia

A2 - Dousa, Tom

PB - Springer Science+Business Media

CY - Dordrecht

ER -